You can start with Dual Boot at first. It's always nice to fall back on a OS when you feel lost. But right now, I have to say the learning curve is not that steep anymore. And my last OS was XP from Bill Gates, after that went to Linux and never looked back.
It was only recently for a workrelated assignment I had to deal with Windows again and it really felt lethargic and very buggy. Not to mention all the system crashes and lag. Linux Mint is a good place to start if you feel like trying it out. Offers a decent level of security and configurability without being too difficult.
If I were you I'd run a USB live session first to see if everything is compatible and without driver issues. Older wireless network cards can be a issue to get working (prefer a RJ45 wired connection myself anyway) and printers that are not made for Linux can be a bit of a pain to manually find/install the drivers for.
Wine can run most windows programs, and if you need specific software you can always fall back on the dual boot or run a VM.
Other than that, I'd say go for it anon. You won't regret it and wish you had done so years ago!
Check Pic(s) related